CANADIAN PRO TENNIS PLAYERS ROBBED IN BINGHAMTON

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- One of Canada's top pro tennis players and
his doubles partner were robbed while looking to buy marijuana,
according to police.

Simon Larose, who is ranked fifth in Canada, and Derek Turek weren't
hurt in the Aug. 7 robbery in Binghamton where qualifying rounds of
the Frito Lay/USTA Challenger tournament were being played. But the
police report of the crime differs from the harrowing experience
Larose described to a Montreal newspaper in Friday's editions.

Lt. Alex Minor, reading from a Binghamton police report, said the
trouble started when the athletes were looking for a contact to obtain
marijuana.

Larose stated "we decided to try to buy some pot," and Turek stated
"we decided to look for some marijuana," Minor said Friday.

The tennis players picked up two unidentified men who later robbed the
athletes of $300 and jewelry. The tennis players told police the
suspects displayed a gun, then shot it when they left the players'
car. The players told police the shot sounded and smelled like it came
from a toy cap gun, Minor said.

That's not the way the players describe the scene in The Journal de
Montreal.

The players said they pulled their car over to ask
directions.

"There were two or more of them and one put a gun through the open
window and pressed it to my forehead," Larose was quoted.

"I was sure it was the end, that I was going to die," said Larose, who
said he went home to Quebec to get over the experience.

"It's better now but I had nightmares all week, especially after I
found out that the same individuals were suspected of killing two
people in the same kind of robbery the week before," he told the newspaper.

Minor said there was no such killing.

The suspects have not been found and the tennis players face no
charges.

Larose and Turek couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

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